Transcript: Welcome back to Write Better Right Now. I hope you're having a great spring. I've been talking about analyzing your plot. Writing your first draft is really just the first step. After that, you need to make sure that your plot is as strong as it can get—and your characters and setting and theme and so forth—but it's really important to take a step back and analyze your plot, and to start by looking at the big picture. There's no point in line editing when you still may need to make major changes to the overall plot. I've already done two videos on starting big before you focus in; this will be the third.
There are many ways you can analyze plot, and one of them is to look at the major plot points. In Western storytelling tradition, going back thousands of years, this breaks down into five main points.
The hook at the beginning of the story, where something interesting happens to your main character. It's what draws the reader into the story and makes them curious about what's going to happen.
The Act 1 break happens at about 25% of the story. Something major happens to twist the story, and at this point, your main character should be really committed to solving the problem. They can't just walk away.
The midpoint at the 50% mark typically echoes the ending of the story. So if you have a happy ending, your midpoint will be a high point. It will seem like everything is going well at that point, but it's a false high before everything goes wrong again.
Things start going wrong, leading to the Act 2 break at 75%. This is basically where everything seems about as bad as it can get. But your main character is still really committed to solving the problem. They have to make a big push to get through it.
That leads to the climax, where hopefully they succeed. After the climax, you just have the wrap-up or denouement.
My brother teaches script writing at a couple of colleges in California, as well as being a script writer himself. He has mentioned that he sometimes sees student manuscripts that use these plot points but don't do it in the right way. They will have something big happen at those points, but it might be something that relates to a secondary character or a subplot.
It's not enough to simply have something big happening at your plot points. It needs to relate to your main plot and your main character's attempts to deal with the situation. It's worth digging into the plot points more to make sure that you really understand what's supposed to happen and how that relates to traditional storytelling in the Western tradition.
That is not the only way you can analyze your plot. A number of authors have come up with plotting or story analysis tools, and you might find one that works better for you. Christopher Vogel has The Hero's Journey, or The Writer's Journey, which looks at mythical structure. It has a number of plot points and also discusses some of the traditional archetypical characters. Some writers find that works very well for them, where for others it may feel like your story doesn't really fit because it's not mythological enough, or you can't quite see how to map that onto your story.
Another popular one is the Script Writing Beat Sheet from Save the Cat. It has 15 points, so it goes into more detail than just those five initial points I mentioned. That can be helpful if you go through either an outline, if you are an outliner, or your draft, or both, and figure out whether you have those points. If not, would it make your story stronger to put them in?
James Scott Bell has 14 Signpost Scenes in Super Structure. Martha Alderson has The Plot Whisperer method. There are various plot maps that different writers have come up with, maybe because one of the ones they found didn't quite work right for them.
Author Janet Fox compared several of them in this visual. At the top, you have the basic three-act structure that dates back to playwriting and thousands of years. In green, she has Christopher Vogler's Writer's Journey. In brown, Sid Field's plot points from script writing. Blue is Martha Alderson's. You see hers is not a straight line with points on it, but rather it talks about the ups and downs, which might be helpful for some writers. Then red is James Scott Bell's 14 signpost scenes.
Also recommended:
Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence, by Lisa Cron
Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel, by Lisa Cron
Scene and Structure, by Jack Bickham
Writing the Blockbuster Novel, by Albert Zuckerman
The Three Stages of Screenwriting, by Douglas Eboch
I developed the Plot Arc Exercise, which I cover in Advanced Plotting, because I wanted something that would work well for me. You can download the plot arc exercise at https://chriseboch.com/for-writers/, and keep it as a document on your computer.
This is less about mapping to specific plot points and more about making sure that there is drama in every chapter. I ask questions about what happens, what is the conflict in the chapter, who is working to overcome that conflict, and so forth.
I personally feel like the three act structure and having these specific plot points can be really great, especially for beginning and early intermediate writers, because it helps you make sure your plot is working. As you get more advanced, you might notice some pitfalls. They can make books seem too much the same. If you've watched a movie and felt like you knew exactly what was going to happen next and when it was going to happen, it might be because it was using that very familiar act structure.
Really, depending on the type of story, you may need those plot points more or less. Romance may not really need all those points. Mystery may need them a little more. It depends on the kind of story you're trying to tell. There are also traditions other than the Western storytelling tradition, so if you are doing an indigenous or Eastern storytelling tradition, you may not want your story to map to those plot points.
I think, though, that whatever kind of story you're telling, you want to make sure that dramatic things happen in each chapter to keep the reader's interest. That can be another way to look at it. I ask some of those questions in my plot arc exercise.
Exercise:
Check out at least three or four of the different plot analysis techniques.
What can you learn from how they are the same/different?
Which might work for you?
Your exercise for the week is to look into some of these plot analysis techniques. Try to check out at least three or four of the different ones. (Links above are to the books on Amazon. As an Amazon affiliate, I may get a commission if you buy using the link. An internet search should bring up other info.) See how they are the same and different. What can you learn from that? What seems to be consistent? What is different between them? Which one might work for you?
You may not use the same plot analysis technique throughout your entire career as your writer. You might find something that works great for the manuscript you're working on right now, but doesn't work for the next one. That's just the reality of being a writer. The same tools don't always work perfectly each time. That's why it is helpful to be familiar with some of these different analysis techniques, so if you find yourself stumbling on a manuscript, you know what some of the options are, and you can go back to them and maybe find one that will help you for that.
Next week, I will still be talking about editing, but we will actually be getting into the middle stage of focusing in more. I hope that you will join me then.
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